(1) The Phoenix (D. Salvatore)

Chapter One Hundred and Two

Stefan approaches the Salvatore house just as Damon is leaving, carrying a weekend bag. It won't take a weekend to get Jeremy back but Damon wants to be prepared, it's why he told Daphne to pack a bag as well. It shouldn't take them very long. Teleport there, grab Jeremy, track sire lines, and teleport back. Daphne's idea. To track sire lines to figure out where Damon and Stefan are sired and back to which Original it might be. She has a plan, but she doesn't know if it is going to work yet. It's similar to the spell she did to cut Abby's connection to her magic, only it would cut the sire lines without causing a deterioration of life. Maybe. It's never been done before. It doesn't even really exist. This would be her making up a spell. But she needs to get her facts right. So much stuff to do. She knew that leaving Alaric until they got back would have been best, but she wanted to give it a go before they left. Damon knew that she was the nerd that did her homework as soon as she got it, but she is just going to burn herself out. Hence the weekend bags. He's hoping to talk her into staying a night or two at Grimmauld, away from all the drama, just taking some time to herself.

"You hear from Klaus?" Damon asks Stefan who shakes his head.

"Not yet" He answers. "I'm sure I will soon though" He lets out a sigh and folds his arms over his chest. "He's expecting Daphne to deliver eight stakes, we only have seven"

"Well, that's gonna be disappointing for him" Damon comments as he approaches his car. Stefan stops on the path to watch him.

"I'll keep trying with Alaric until Daphne gets back" He offers. Damon glances at him and then lets out a breath.

"I like that confidence, Stefan. I don't share it, but I like it"

"You don't think I can do what it takes" Stefan realises, Damon shrugs.

"Well, you're good Stefan again. You're in control" They both know what Damon is saying. Now that Daphne has fixed him, he's not got that edge that he needs to be a bad cop against Alaric. Their best shot is Daphne's spell. Once she's chilled out a bit. Practised that spell even. He'll offer up his own mind for her to practice. He'll heal if anything goes wrong. Not that it will. He trusts her and her magic.

.....

Daphne is sitting on the couch when Damon lets himself into the Gilbert house. A bag at her feet. Ready to go. She's thoughtful and he doesn't need to be a mind reader to know what she's thinking about. Alaric and that spell. She's got herself so focused on it that she can barely think about anything else.

"You ready to go?" He asks, nodding to the bucket portkey on the table. Daphne hums and then stands, picking up her bag. "Don't worry about Ric, we'll figure it out" She huffs a little and looks at him. "You don't have to fix everything, Red" He assures her. "We can find a non-magical way to get what we need"

"And how long is that going to take?" She counters. "What if people die?"

"Look at our lives" He offers. "That's already a risk, and it's not all on you" He touches her arm. "Let Bonnie pick up some of the magical slack"

"She can't do this spell" She argues as she steps closer to him. "And I don't trust her right now"

"I'm not the first person to come to her defence" He starts. "But...she made a mistake and she wanted to protect the people she loves, which is exactly why you are doing this" She lets out a breath through her nose. Because she knows. She knows that Bonnie didn't betray them to betray them, she did it for her mom and for Jeremy. And Daphne knows she might have done the same thing in her shoes. It just stings that Bonnie didn't come to them when it happened so that they could help her. She could have dropped a text or some spell message or something. They would have understood at that point, not after the fact. She knows it's not the first time Bonnie's done something like this though.

"Jeremy told me about the Gilbert device" She points out, he snorts a little.

"That was a long time ago" He argues and kisses her head. "That was different....Now come on" He nods to the bucket.

"Why was it different?" She asks him as he moves to the bucket. "She didn't deactivate the device, people got hurt, Caroline died.....because she thought she knew best, because she didn't trust you guys"

"I was a dick" He admits and shrugs. "And...maybe it needed to be done" She gives him a look. "It's not the same thing" He counters. She sighs and steps closer to him again.

"We wouldn't be giving up Original killing stakes if she'd just talked to us first" She reminds him. "If she'd trust us" Damon touches her chin, he knows what this is about. Bonnie is a witch. Daphne is a witch. For Daphne, that means some level of magical trust and comradely. Bonnie didn't trust her. A fellow witch. And that's hurt her. Because it's just the way that Daphne was taught. To trust and lean on her fellow magical users.

"If she'd trust you" He corrects and she shrugs a little, pulling a face.

"I trusted her to have my back, but she didn't trust me to have hers" She whispers.

"It's not about that" He tells her. "She just knows Klaus and what he's capable of and she got scared....that's not a lack of trust in you" She lets out a breath and nods. He releases her chin and turns to the bucket. She narrows her eyes slightly, he seems determined to get going, in a rush even. She folds her arms over her chest and smirks.

"Why are you in such a rush to get there?" She asks him as stands over the bucket. "You hated travelling by portkey last time"

"You and me in a big house with no Klaus problems" He explains and claps his hands together before motioning to the bucket. She chuckles a little and moves to stand across from him. "And this time...I am going to meet Buckbeak" He tells her firmly. He's been thinking about it a lot since they left the house because he has never seen a hippogriff and he really wants to see one. Like a child.

"Wait till you learn that dragons and unicorns are real" She teases, he snaps his eyes to hers. "Oh" She realises that he didn't know that at all. "Oh, Damon" She whispers softly. He feels cheated. She's already pointed out that he should know all of the same stuff she does about what exists out there, but Katherine never stuck around to teach him or Stefan about any of this stuff. As a vampire, he had every right to be included in her world, with her kind of witches, and he never had any of it. He does wonder how it would have been different for him. Perhaps he wouldn't have been such a dick if he had a community around him to support him. Stefan might not have been a ripper for the same reason. Katherine really screwed them over in more ways than he considered.